Louis XIV

King of France, the Sun King

1638 – 1715 · 77 years · Versailles · Europe

Reign: 1643 – 1715 (Franks and France)

Reigned 72 years, longer than any other European monarch. Embodied absolutism, built Versailles and made France the dominant power.

Portrait: Hyacinthe Rigaud · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 5 years younger
Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 32 years older
Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 47 years younger
Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 56 years younger
René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 42 years older
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — German philosopher and mathematician, 8 years younger

Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 34 years younger
Alexis the Most Quiet — tsar of the 1649 Law Code and the church schism, 9 years older
Vitus Bering — Danish explorer in Russian service, 43 years younger
Catherine I — first Russian empress, widow of Peter the Great, 46 years younger
Anna — empress who tore up the Conditions; era of Biron's dominance, 55 years younger
Feodor III — tsar who abolished the precedence system (mestnichestvo), 23 years younger

Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 35 years younger
Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 50 years younger
Ahmed II — sultan who lost the Battle of Slankamen, 5 years younger
Mehmed IV the Hunter — sultan of the Köprülü era and the siege of Vienna, 4 years younger
Suleiman II — sultan who retook Belgrade after 39 years in the 'cage', 4 years younger
Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 27 years older

Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 16 years younger
Aurangzeb — Mughal emperor, 20 years older
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi — the 'Dog Shogun' who outlawed cruelty to animals, 8 years younger
Matsuo Bashō — Japanese poet, 6 years younger
Shivaji — founder of the Maratha state, 8 years older
Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 46 years younger